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Mitchell Waldman
Mitchell Waldman is a fiction writer who works generally in the realist tradition and tends to use dialogue to bring his characters to life. He is the author of the short story collection, PETTY OFFENSES AND CRIMES OF THE HEART (Wind Publications, August 2011). The stories in Petty Offenses and Crimes of the Heart have been said to "startle a reader with sudden, uncompromising insight. They seem ordinary people engaged in ordinary lives until betrayals, accidents, and misfortune put the puzzles of their weak choices and unfair chance into stark relief when they are left with a kind of clarity they might have been happier not to have. Yet these stories are not moralistic judgments. Readers will come away from this book better for having spent time with Waldman’s well wrought characters, all sprung from the heart of an exacting writer gifted with compassion." (Perry Glasser, author of Dangerous Places). And, it has been said that in the book, "Waldman gives the reader a full buffet of crimes and offenses; from large to small, physical to mental and subtle to spectacular....There's something to chew on and sink your teeth into." (Timothy Gager, author of Treating A Sick Animal: Flash and Micro Fictions). In addition, another reviewer has said of the collection that subtle paradoxes and paradigmatic shifts undermine the reader's sense of stable themes....Waldman's writing stays tight, even concise, and by not calling attention to itself all the more reveals everyday life as taking place on a far grander scale than we imagine." (Paul A. Toth, author of Airplane Novel). Midwest Book Review said that in the book "Mitchell Waldman . . . talks on many topics throughout recent history and the struggles to understand an impossible to understand world, and that with poignancy and wisdom peppered throughout, 'Petty Offenses & Crimes of the Heart' is a read that is well worth considering, highly recommended." Book Pleasures described Petty Offenses as including "beautifully crafted stories...which can be described as bitter sweet. Each protagonist has a scar of some kind; an emotional wound which dictates their actions and the stories revolve around characters seeking to resolve these issues . . . . Some reach a level of greater wisdom and closure . . . . In other stories the characters do not enjoy the mixed blessings of 'closure', and some border on the macabre . . . . The lesson it seems from these stories is that you can use your life's experiences even when circumstances are beyond your control such as war or poverty and turn them around to move on and make choices or be a victim of your circumstances and allow them to control you. Either way there is a cause and a consequence of any action or choice . . . . Each of these stories can be read as self-contained compositions but I would recommend you read them in sequence to experience the themes to unfold as most satisfyingly do." (Dean Cowan at BookPleasures.com). TCM Reviews said: "The stories in Offenses leave the reader wondering who the real criminal is. . . These characters have something to share -- something profound, something personal and something that reveals a little about ourselves." And, about the book, Cybersoleil stated "William Faulkner said than an author's job is to make the extraordinary seem ordinary and make the ordinary seem extraordinary, and in Petty Offenses and Crimes of the Heart, this is what Waldman accomplishes. While reading the stories you may wonder 'Is there any safe place to go?,' but you will be glad you spend time in Waldman's world..." Waldman also wrote the novel, A FACE IN THE MOON (Writers Club Press, 2000), a belated coming-of-age story told from a male first person viewpoint. Waldman's novel has been described as "a Shakespearean like tale with a twist" as "a story readers won't soon forget", as a book "full of love, but also and as"an emotionally deep story that takes the reader so deep inside a lonely, sad young man readers will hold their breath knowing that they cannot escape until the book is finished." Waldman's short stories, poetry, and essays focus in great part on relationships, broken families, and men's and women's issues. His work also deals, in some part, with the effects of war on families and their participants, as well as with alienation, in some instances in the context, specifically, of being a Jew in a largely Christian society. His work has appeared in many publications, including, among others, Baby Lawn Literature, The Avalon Literary Magazine, Peachfish Magazine, The Faircloth Review, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Random Sample, Fiction on the Web, The Fringe Magazine, Waterhouse Review, Wind Magazine, Pulse Literary Journal, Litsnack, Down in the Dirt, Blue Ships Magazine, The Houston Literary Review, red fez, Milk Sugar, The Greensilk Journal, The Piker Press, trans lit, Connotation Press new aesthetic, The Battered Suitcase, eFiction Magazine, worldwide hippies, Fiction Collective, Shorelines Literary Magazine, Wilderness House Literary Review, Greatest Lakes Review, Eclectic Flash, Moronic Ox Literary and Cultural Journal Five Fishes Journal, Ink Monkey Magazine, 13th Story, 63 Channels, Poetpourri, Poetry Motel, Poetic Hours, Poetalk, Poetry Peddler, Poetry Forum, Poetry Forum Newsletter, The Poet's Haven, Woven Worlds, The Advocate, Desperate Act, Malcontent, CWG Newsletter, Verbal Expression, Bold Print, First Literary Review, HazMat Review, Mobius, Innisfree, The Parnassus Literary Journal, Unknowns, Long Story Short Rochester Shorts, The Rochester Times-Union, and the anthologies, Beyond Lament: Poets of the World Bearing Witness to the Holocaust (Northwestern University Press, 1998), Messages from the Universe (iUniverse, 2002), America Remembered (Virgogray Press, 2010), Looking Beyond (Scars Publications, 2011), and Prominent Pen (Scars Publications, 2011). Waldman also co-edited (with Diana May-Waldman), Hip Poetry 2012 (Wind Publications, 2012), and Wounds of War: Poets for Peace (PublishAmerica, 2006). Waldman lives in Rochester, New York, with his partner, poet Diana May-Waldman. For more information, check out his web page at: http://mitchwaldman.homestead.com Category:Biographies Category:Writers